Day 9 - Florence and Pisa

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Today we got to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa! The tour was only set for the afternoon however, so we had the morning to do a little exploring.

It was the first day it actually rained. We were told that in Positano it had not rained since April! Our tour guide later told us that everyone here is happy because it may have saved the olive crops that will be harvested in late October. After breakfast it stopped raining and we decided to take a walk through the streets of Florence to check out some of the stores. Our main stop was the Piazza del Duo mo where we took some pictures of the beautiful buildings.
We left Florence for Pisa in the afternoon with an organized tour bus. The bus ride to Pisa is about a 90 minute drive so we were able to take lots of pictures of the landscape in Tuscany and surrounding cities such as Luca, Prato and Pistoia.
When we arrived in Pisa it was a short walk to the Piazza del Miracoli or "Miracle Square" which is home to the famous Leaning Tower. Our guide informed everyone that it is quite difficult to get tickets into the tower and that to get to the top we would have to walk up 300 steps. (I think we were all secretly relived we didn't pay to climb another crazy staircase.)
The large dome shaped building is the baptistery, which is the biggest one in all of Italy. It was built to baptize people outside of the church as at the time no one was able to enter otherwise. This building is dedicated to Saint John the Baptist and there is a bronze statue of him at the top of the dome. The guide also told us that the water used to baptize the people is actually rain water that is collected through the roof. The cathedral is dedicated to Saint Mary and the bronze statue at the top is of her carrying the baby Jesus. Since we decided not to go into the tower we were able to tour through the cathedral where we were allowed to take pictures! Women are required to cover the shoulders and knees. Emily forgot her cardigan in her shopping bag so you can see her in the pictures sporting the very attractive blue cover.
After the tour they allowed us some free time to walk around and take more pictures. Conveniently, my camera battery decided to die on me and I wasn't able to take as many. Therefore, most of these pictures are Avery's, but she did get some pretty great ones of us with the tower.
Later that night, once we were back in Florence, we found a cute little restaurant for dinner. It was pretty late so we had almost the entire restaurant to ourselves. It was a good end to an awesome day.

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